TOPEKA, Kansas. – The Kansas Prisoner Review Board rescinded its previous decision to grant parole to 78-year-old Jimmie Nelms, according to a media release from the Board.
In 1979, Nelms was sentenced to consecutive life terms plus nine years for the crimes of unlawful possession of a firearm, aggravated kidnapping, and murder in the first degree of Kansas Highway Patrolman Trooper Conroy O’Brien.
Nelms has been eligible for parole since 1993 and has appeared before the board nine times, having been initially granted parole after his hearing in March of this year.
The board, in a new hearing on May 16 with Nelms, rescinded its previous decision to grant parole and decided to deny him release at this time.
On May 8, Kansas Governor asked the board to reconsider the decision.
Trooper O’Brien, 26, was conducting a routine traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike during the early morning hours of May 24, 1978, when Nelms and two others overpowered him. Authorities said O’Brien was forced at gunpoint into a roadside ditch, where he was pistol-whipped and fatally shot twice in the head with his own service weapon.
The three suspects, later identified as being wanted in a string of armed robberies across multiple states, were apprehended later that day after engaging another trooper in a gunfight. All were taken into custody following a manhunt.
The Kansas Trooper's Association late on Monday released a statement on the new decision. In that statement the president of the trooper's association said in part, “We are grateful to the KRB for ultimately choosing justice,” said KSTA President, Technical Trooper Sage Hill. “Trooper O’Brien gave his life in the line of duty. Granting parole to the man responsible for that murder deeply undermined public trust and the sacrifices of every law enforcement officer. Today, justice was reaffirmed, and we are grateful. Tomorrow, we will begin working to make sure such a close call never happens again.”